


all that you are is all that i'll ever need

by CurlyandBoo



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 22:16:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1915905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CurlyandBoo/pseuds/CurlyandBoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry goes to bed that night cuddled up close to Louis, breathing in his scent and thinking that yes, he is so very happy with his life, a fleeting thought as his eyes close and he drifts off to sleep. </p><p>When Harry wakes up, everything will have changed.</p><p>Harry goes to bed wrapped around Louis and wakes up alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	all that you are is all that i'll ever need

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dea_liberty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dea_liberty/gifts).



> this was such a fantastic prompt and i can only hope i did right by it.  
> this is really more like vignettes that tie in together and its very stream of conscious-y  
> I'm not sure this is exactly what you wanted but i hope you like it anyway :)

Harry thinks about fate a lot, more than anyone would really. He thinks about all the times fate tried to push him towards Louis and he was just too slow, he thinks about how much different his life would be if he never got put in One Direction, he thinks about what would have happened if they won the show, but the one thing he never thinks about, the one thing that never even comes to mind is not meeting Louis. Harry likes to believe that no matter the circumstances, or how long it took, he would have met Louis eventually, they’re fated is the thing.

Harry loves Louis you see, he knows Louis is so much more than what the mean fans on twitter think, so much more than everything. He also thinks Louis’ beautiful, the most beautiful person he’s ever seen really, with his perfect hair that brushes the nape of his neck as he sleeps soundly against Harry. Small little puffs of air escaping his lips and hitting Harry’s chest. He can’t help but fall more in love with his boy every day, he just loves him so much. Sometimes it’s overwhelming how much love he can have for one person. His eyes trail over Louis’ little button nose, and he counts the long long long lashes that rest on the sharp cut of his cheekbones and –

“You’re doing it again,” Louis’ voice is thick and raspy with sleep, muffled against Harry’s chest.

“Doing what?’

“Staring,” his eyes flutter open and Harry’s heart swells, “every morning, you know there’s this wonderful thing called sleep? You should try it sometime,” it’s never too early for sarcasm is what Louis believes.

“How can I think of sleep when someone so beautiful exists, right next to me?” Louis’ cheeks are tinted pink and he borrows further into Harry’s chest, Harry’s thinks he’s heart might burst with all the fond he feels for this boy.

“Well since you’re up, you might as well make me tea.” 

He really, really loves Louis very much a lot.

***

Weird things happen to Harry all the time, meeting strange people is a bit of a given in his line of work, so when a boy with shaggy hair, covered in intricate tattoos and a flower crown walked up to him at a beach in LA he wasn’t bothered at all. And when he opened his mouth and said, “do you like your life, Harry Styles?” Harry still wasn’t too freaked out, in fact he’d heard variations of this question ever since the band was formed four years ago. 

“Uhh… yes, I love it.” 

“You’re happy with your situation? With the way everything has played out?” It was obvious at this point that this boy was no ordinary fan, he was cool and calm and he spoke with a purpose, almost like a journalist, but there was something less invasive about this boy, like he knew all the answers to the questions he was asking. He didn’t wait for Harry’s response, “I think that you, Harry Styles, you are not as happy as you pretend to be.” 

“Uh…” Harry opened his mouth to say something, tell this boy that, yes he was in fact very happy, he had his boy and the best friends he could ask for, he was healthy and loved but before he could get a word out, the boy raised his hand, and touched his small, tan palm to Harry’s forehead.

“But Harry Styles, you could be, you could be very happy,” and then he turned around and walked back the way he came from, a whispered make the most of it trailing behind him before he disappeared into the crowd.

Odd, but not the strangest encounter Harry’s ever had, he forgets about it as soon as more fans approach him, this time wanting pictures and autographs. 

Harry goes to bed that night cuddled up close to Louis, breathing in his scent and thinking that yes, he is so very happy with his life, a fleeting thought as his eyes close and he drifts off to sleep. 

When Harry wakes up, everything will have changed.

***

Harry wakes up the next morning, hugging a pillow close to his body, alone. The right side of the bed is empty, cold and made up like no one else had shared it, strange considering he went to bed wrapped around Louis like a giant koala bear, and even stranger because Louis never makes the bed. He stays quiet, trying to listen for sounds outside their bedroom, when he notices that their room is significantly smaller than it’s meant to be, in fact Harry can’t really identify where he is at the moment, but it’s definitely not his room. His and Louis’ room is larger, brighter, warmer, and not just in temperature. But this room is dark and cold and tiny, the paint on the walls is chipping away, instead of a second door that connects to an ensuite, there's a second mattress pushed up against the wall, and all their paintings are gone, instead the walls are covered in photographs he doesn’t recognise, although he can spot the boys in a large majority of them and that settles his racing heart a bit.

There’s a crash of what sounds like pots and pans hitting the kitchen floor, and then a string of curses, “fuck-bugger-shit-fuck..”, coming from somewhere beyond the door to this strange bedroom. Harry gets up then, deciding to follow the string of curses to what is apparently a tiny kitchen. Everything about this place is small and a bit cramped, yellowing walls in desperate need of a new coat of paint, more photographs lining the walls. Whoever lives here, they’re trying to make it as much of a home as possible. The cursing stopped a while ago, the person in the kitchen having moved on to singing along to a top 40 song on the radio, and Harry knows that voice, he knows that voice very well-  
“Niall?” 

“Hazza! Pull up a seat, breakfast is almost ready,” Niall seems oddly comfortable in this strange place, which only adds to Harry’s confusion, “made your favourite,” he continues, sliding a plate over to Harry, filled with a traditional english breakfast. “Tea?”

Harry nods in reply, still confused as to what exactly is going on, just where are they? 

“Niall?” 

“Mhmm,” 

“Where are we?” he figures he might as well start with the obvious, although if he’s being honest the obvious question is where is Louis? Why is Louis not with Harry?! He’s not sure why but Harry’s more afraid of that answer, his stomach twists with uncertainty. 

Niall’s eyebrows raise in confusion at Harry’s question, “C’mon Hazza, you didn't have that much to drink last night did ya?” he sounds like he’s humouring Harry, like he’s not sure how to answer that question, not sure if Harry’s taking the piss or not. 

Harry doesn’t reply, just looks back at Niall. Something in his expression must alert Niall to the fact that he isn’t joking, that he’s being quite serious, because Niall clears his throat and says in a cautious voice, like he’s not sure what Harry’s going to do in response to his answer, 

“Haz, this is our flat. Y’know, the one we share with Liam and Zayn, our best mates,” and Louis he thinks but doesn’t say, where’s Louis? 

“Where’s Louis?” he finally says, and the look Niall shoots him breaks his heart, it’s clear from the vacant expression on Niall’s face that he has no clue who Louis even is, let alone where he is. Harry can’t explain it but somehow, sometime between last night and this morning he found himself in a world that is definitely not his own. 

“Who’s Louis?” Harry didn’t think his heart could sink any further but there they are, the words Harry’s been dreading to hear ever since he woke up in this strange place, mirror images of what he knows, slightly distorted. 

He loves his boys but they most certainly do not live together. 

“This isn’t funny Niall,” he tries, but something in the way Niall’s eyes wash over him only confirms what he’s already been thinking, “you don’t know who Louis is, do you?” 

*** 

Niall doesn’t know who Louis is, and neither do Zayn or Liam who he meets after breakfast when Niall drags him to a rehearsal studio in Central London. They’re still One Direction, or they’re trying to be. As far as Harry can tell, they were still put together on the X Factor but they never really made it anywhere, they didn’t even make it far enough in the live shows to do the X Factor Tour, as far as he can tell this Harry (and he’s thinking of him as a different person because how can they be the same when someone as fundamentally important as Louis isn’t even a part of This Harry’s life) never even met Louis. 

They approach him during a break with varying looks of concern etched on their faces. Harry would laugh, but the entire situation is so out of this world that he’s stunned into a Louis-less silence. Liam appears to be the spokesperson of this ragtag intervention. He approaches Harry so carefully like he thinks Harry’s a flight risk or something equally ridiculous, but considering the days events, that theory’s looking a lot less ridiculous as the minutes pass. 

“Harry,” there’s so much worry and concern thrown into that one word that Harry can almost convince himself he’s back in his actual life, because these are his friends, his bandmates, his brothers, and they do care about him and it’s almost real but theres still one less person crowding around him and that makes him take a step back. 

“What’s wrong mate?” it’s Zayn who speaks this time, staring at Harry like he’s a puzzle, and the thing is, everything’s wrong, starting with Louis not being there right down to the lack of fans crowding the entrance to the rehearsal studio, that he’s not really sure what he should tell them first. He’ll tell them though, because he’s never kept a secret from his boys before and he’s not about to start now. He just doesn’t know where to begin.

“Louis,” is all that manages to come out of his mouth, and he really should congratulate his brain on such a stellar performance but really, that’s all it boils down to, Louis, that’s what’s really wrong here. 

“Who’s Louis, mate?” 

“Yeah, you were looking for him this morning too.”

“He’s a part of this band, he’s our best friend.” 

“Harry, we don’t know who that is”, Liam sounds about ready to take Harry to a doctor, “ but the band is just the four of us.”

***

“Let’s try this place, eh?” Louis says, pulling Harry into a tiny travel shop, its quaint and strangely small compared to the larger buildings surrounding it, but it has presence and an appeal that Harry can’t really describe, a lot like Louis really, small with heaps of personality. 

“It’s a travel shop,” he says, “What do you need from a travel shop?”

“Well Harold, it might have slipped your mind but we do travel quite a bit don’t we?” he says, glancing at Harry out of the corner of his eyes, and smirking like he thinks he’s the funniest thing, “In fact, we travel so much I’d say a trip to a travel store has been long over due.” 

“And just what exactly do you plan on getting from the travel shop?” he says with a returning smile on his face, throwing a cursory glance around the shop.

Its walls are lined with travel books of all shapes and sizes, in the corner there’s a set of stairs that lead to a second level, where he can see displays set up with clothing and suitcases, cameras and even more books, travels books, reading books, travel journals, he might get one of those actually, they’re leather bound and quite beautiful. 

A sharp elbow to the stomach snaps him out of his thoughts, and then Louis’s saying something about Jamaica and how he’d really like to learn more about all it has to offer, and Harry thinks Louis just made all that up right now, but he also knows that in a few weeks they’ll probably be relaxing at a beach in Jamaica siping Mojito’s under the sun, and it’s just another one of those things he loves about his boy so much. 

“Well?” Louis says with a smile, holding out his hand for Harry to take.

“I hear Jamaica’s lovely this time of year,” he says, taking hold of Louis’s hand, to be honest he’s positive he’d go anywhere with Louis, regardless of the weather. 

***

The boys decide to give Harry a bit of a break, a rest is what they think he needs, he knows better of course, what he needs is to find Louis, that’s what he really needs. But how, when he’s stuck in London, playing tiny concert halls to the few people who remember them from the X factor. Their management team’s not that great either, or at least they’re trying to be, they let Harry come out apparently which was great but didn’t really do much to up their appeal, so now they’re stuck doing ten minute radio interviews with small time stations in as much a need of a big break as they are. 

They’re at one of these small time radio stations a few days later, Harry’s still not really sure how popular a band they really are, in fact all he really knows is that, after the X factor they decided to give it a go but it turned out not to be as easy as all that and after two years of sending out demo after demo a small label finally took a chance on them, they released an EP and a year later they released an album, and now they’re at this nameless station trying to promote, 

“A tour?” 

a tour. 

“Yeah, we’re really excited,” Liam says, even here he’s pretty much the spokesperson, “it’s just a small tour, a few gigs around the country and two dates in Ireland, but it really is such a big moment for us.” 

This is all wrong though, they’re so quiet. Liam does a lot of the talking, all of it really, Harry tries to get in a few sentences here or there but he’s always cut off. 

“I’m uh... really looking forward to going back home-” he’s cut off by the interviewer, they apparently only have so much time on air and he talks to slowly, he supposes. 

Louis would let him finish his sentence, at least.

“So your tour starts in Manchester next month?” the interviewer’s not the best at easing the boys out of their shells, and Harry thinks that generally Louis would be the one to do that for them. It’s how they worked. 

“Yeah, tickets go on sale this friday.” and Liam sounds incredibly excited and Harry aches because these boys are doing so much to get ahead in the game and the payoff just isn’t as fast this time around.

***  
“Hey Hazza!” it’s Niall, he’s standing next to the couch Harry’s sprawled out on with two bottles of beer at his side and a cautious smile on his face.

“Niall,” he says with a smile. They’re the same, it’s so strange. This is Niall, he looks like Niall and he acts like Niall but it isn’t really Niall. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” he asks, handing Harry a beer and moving his legs aside so there’s space for him to sit. 

“About what?” 

“Whatever’s got you so miserable,” he replies. He’s not looking at Harry, instead he picks up two x box controllers and hands one to Harry while fifa loads, “you’ve not really been yourself, it’s like you’re here but you’re not really here,” 

Harry doesn’t really know what to say to that, well you see where I’m from we’re in a world famous band with my boyfriend, who funnily enough doesn’t appear to be a part of this band in this world, or my boyfriend. He can’t say that out loud though, they’d think he was mental, and more than that, acknowledging that Louis isn’t his boyfriend or even remotely a part of his life, out loud, was just not something he could see himself doing. 

“I’m fine Niall,” he says, and he hopes his doesn’t sound as broken as he feels.

“Who’s Louis?” is what Niall says instead of dropping it, and really, this conversation again.

“I already told you that,” he contemplates getting up and going to his room, but what purpose would that serve, Niall could just as easily follow him there, seeing as it’s Niall’s room too. He also needs to listen to their album again, go over the lyrics a couple more times before the tour kicks off. He needs to get used to the different tunes and tempos, he needs to figure out how to stay in time with the others without Louis’s voice to guide him. 

“Is he someone from back home?” 

“No.”

He wants so badly to talk about Louis, but the thought of Niall denying Louis’s existence again is just too much, he has no idea how they’re a properly functioning band without him.

“Why’d you say that, about him being in the band and all?” 

“I woke up Niall, and everything was different,” He doesn’t know what makes him say it but he goes with it anyway, If he can get one other person to believe him then he might just be able to deal with this whole entire thing. “I went to bed one night, the member of a world famous boyband with the love of my life by my side and when I woke up, I was in this strange flat with people who wore my friends faces.” 

“What are you saying mate, you’re in the wrong life or something? Because I know this can be hard sometimes but its worth it, innit? Us, doing this thing?” Niall sounds like he might be taking Harry seriously, like he might just believe what Harry has to say, but he also sounds like he thinks Harry’s talking in strictly metaphorical sense, which is not the case.

“I’m saying, Niall, that the Harry you know and the Harry sitting right in front of you are two completely different people and I need to find Louis, because I just know that when I do I’ll know how to fix this, how to get me back, but I need Louis,” he sounds desperate, he knows he does but he needs desperately for Niall to understand, for someone to get it. 

“Okay,” Niall says it deliberately like he’s still thinking about what he’s going to say next, “where do you think you’ll find him?”  
“I don’t know.” 

Harry tells Niall all about Louis and how they met, and how every day since has had to be some sort of secret affair to secure fans, and he’s not entirely sure where to start looking for this Louis because he’d be so different from the Louis he knows.

“Have you tried Facebook?” Niall says simply and Harry is about to say that no, Louis deactivated his account years ago, but then it clicks, this Louis isn’t famous, this Louis has no secrets to hide from the public, this Louis wouldn’t have ever had to deactivate his account. 

“Niall, you’re brilliant.” 

***  
They’re standing in the middle of the kitchen, not looking at each other. Louis’s fuming.

“I just don’t understand why you need to be seen with any girl really,” he spits out, and Harry knows Louis isn’t upset with him, more at the general situation really, “why do they need to run any articles at all, calling you a womaniser and speculating who you’re sleeping with this week.” 

“I know babe, but it’s better than you having to go out with her,” he tries reasoning with Louis, trying to calm him down. It’s just he’s meant to go to some party tonight and be seen chatting to a few girls, just to get the press talking. The thing is, Harry hates it just as much as Louis does, he’s just better at focusing on the pro’s rather than the con’s. 

He wishes things were different but they’re not, he wishes he could go out in public and hold his boyfriend’s hand, and not have to travel in separate cars and be papped with people who aren’t Louis. Sometimes he wishes he could just change one thing about his life, but it’s not possible so he sucks it up and goes to the clubs, and gets papped with girls and thinks about all the great things in his life instead. Like the fans and getting to see the world and performing in front of thousands of people with four of the best people in his life and mostly he thinks about Louis and how all of this just means he gets to keep Louis.

“I just don’t like that people think this way about you,” Louis says quietly, having calmed down finally. 

“I know love,” he says, pulling Louis into a hug, “it won’t always be this way.” 

He kisses Louis then, gently.

And later he goes out and gets papped going into a club, and the tabloids run an article about the insane number of girls he pulled, and life goes on.

***  
Louis Tomlinson is in his final year of Uni, studying English and Drama and all his pictures on his timeline are of him, Stan and Hannah. His relationship status is single, and for that Harry breathes a sigh of relief. Louis attends the university of Manchester, which is where Harry will be in a few short weeks and Harry can’t wait but at the same time he doesn’t think he’ll ever be ready to meet this Louis, this Louis who doesn’t know him at all. 

Harry’s sitting on his bed stalking Louis’s facebook page and trying to find reasons to add him as a friend that won’t make him look creepy.

Louis’s facebook doesn’t really tell Harry much else about him, nothing Harry doesn’t already know. This Louis is still friends with Hannah but they’re not dating, he and Stan are still best friends and Grease is still his favourite movie, but nothing noteworthy can really be found on his profile. 

He clicks refresh on the page and watches it reload for the fifth time in as many minutes, ‘saw the fittest boy today - think i’m in love ;)’, appears at the top of Louis timeline, Harry is irrationally jealous and sad at the same time. 

He finds Louis’s twitter a while later and reads all of Louis’s tweets, he tweets about tv shows and course work, but mostly he tweets at Stan and Hannah, most of the tweets make no sense out of context and only serve to drive home the fact that this Harry and this Louis are strangers. Harry feels a bit like a creep and closes his laptop with a sigh, pushing it aside and falling back on his bed. 

This Louis seems happy, he isn’t hiding who he is in the back of a closet and it’s obvious he loves what he’s doing, Louis is still out there having the time of his life, and Harry hates that he’s even remotely upset that Louis’s able to do that without him. It’s not even like Louis knows he exists, like he’s even aware of the other life they shared, Harry still curls up on his side and hopes that if he shuts them long enough he’ll wake up and this will all have been some terrible nightmare. 

It isn’t. 

He wakes up a few hours later to Zayn knocking on his door, letting him know that supper’s ready and to come now before Niall eats it all. 

***

The label they’re signed to is tiny, and the bus they’ve arranged for the boys is even tinier, barely enough room for them and the musical band accompanying them, but they manage to find room for everything and everyone, surprisingly. They spend most of their time on the bus chatting to the musicians, and Niall keeps shooting Harry encouraging looks the closer they get to Manchester. He’d decided to try and find him when they got to Manchester after he’d told Niall a few weeks back. 

Niall had seemed genuinely excited by the idea of Harry finding Louis, 

“Mate that’s fantastic, what do you think you’ll say to him?” was the first thing Niall said when Harry told him. Harry had no idea, and he’d told NIall just as much, Harry was more concerned with finding him and actually talking to this stranger-Louis than with what they’d actually talk about. 

But he’d been thinking about it a lot since then, and what he really wants to do is find a way of getting Louis in the band. The idea’s insane, not only has he not told the boys, or at least Niall, about this idea, but there’s no way of knowing if Louis would even want that, nevermind actually getting to the point where he’d be able to run that idea by him. It’s just that, he’d been thinking about it, about the band and how they just didn’t seem to be making it that big, and all he could think about was how Louis had gotten Zayn to come out of his shell, and got Liam to loosen up, he’d listen to all of Harry and Niall’s ideas and never made them feel silly or too young to do anything, and what he’d realised was that Louis really brought this band together. They blossomed under Louis’s attention, and when it was the five of them they were great.

And it wasn’t that they didn’t get along now, because it was obvious in the way Liam always made sure they had enough to get by and never made them feel the need to worry, and in the way Zayn would watch over all of them like they were his own to protect and the way Niall could just tell when any of them were upset, that these boys loved each other, and they loved Harry, and that was something that would never change no matter how drastically the world around them did. If Harry didn’t know any better he’d think they were the happiest people in the world, but he did know better, he’s seen them at their happiest and this is not it.

***  
Harry can’t wait any longer, as soon as they’ve booked into the hotel he’s off again, heading straight for the University. They’re not playing a gig until tomorrow, so he has all the time he needs to find Louis, Niall gave him the idea really. 

“Just pretend you’re lost right, and ask someone where you could find final year Drama students because you’re meeting a friend their or summat,” 

Niall’s brilliant a lot of the time, and today was no exception. 

He gets to the campus eager to start his search when nature calls, he could always just ask someone in the toilet, no better conversation starter than sharing a urinal he thinks. 

“I’m telling you mate, Hannah’s been talking about this for days, he’s in some boyband with a jawline to die for and they’re here tomorrow night,” a voice says from inside the loo, and Harry freezes. He knows that voice, that voice is all he hears when he goes to sleep at night. 

Louis. 

Harry can’t push through the door fast enough, it’s him, and he’s beautiful, with his tight black pants and oversized jumper, his hair’s messy and he has the most beautiful scruff on his face and he’s pushing his glasses up and Louis has never been more beautiful. 

“Well, do you think you’ll go with her?” Louis turns to look at the person next to him, Stan, Harry hadn’t even realised he was there. 

“Of course I am, have you ever known me to pass up on seeing cute boys?” Harry hasn’t moved from the door and Louis finally looks up at him, “You okay mate? You’re blocking the way yeah,” he says, and it's the first thing this Louis has ever said to Harry and isn’t it ironic that they’d meet in a bathroom of all places. He thinks he definitely can’t get ‘You okay mate? You’re blocking the way’ tattooed on his arm, but he doesn’t care as long as he can have Louis back. 

“Oops,” he says without thought but he doesn’t step aside, Louis smiles up at him and says, “Hi,” back and Harry wants to die, right then and there. This is obviously some cruel joke the universe is playing on him, Harry is not amused.

“Have we met before?” Louis says again, ignoring Stan’s hand trying to pull him along and looking up at Harry with a curious expression. 

“I think I would have remembered,” he says instead of yes, I love you please never leave me. Louis smiles at him again, this time he does follow Stan to move around Harry towards the door and this is it, he needs to make a move now, he needs to do something. 

“Wait,” he says, turning around to face Louis again, who’s stopped and is looking at Harry with curious eyes once again, “This is weird but would you want to grab something to drink, with me?” 

Louis’s eyes light up and he turns to Stan and says, “I’ll catch up with you later, yeah?”. When he turns back around to face Harry, he’s grinning widely and says, “My friend Eleanor works at this coffee shop just off campus, and she knows how to make my tea just right.”. Harry is confused for a minute, hearing Eleanor’s name said so casually and by Louis of all people, but that’s the least of his concerns right now. 

“Sounds great, I’m Harry by the way.” 

“Louis”  
***

They’re at a petrol station and it’s late and all Louis wants is tea but they’ve run out on the bus and this dingy petrol station doesn’t have anything he approves of so Harry grabs the first generic box of tea he can find and heads towards the cashier. 

“I can’t believe we’ve run out of tea” Louis says behind him, “of all the things in the world” he sounds really put upon.

“We’ve got this now, it’ll last until we get to a bigger city and we can get you some proper tea” he says handing the tea to the cashier who rings it up, the transaction is over soon enough and the two boys walk out of the store together. 

“I love you, you know” Louis says casually stepping up into the bus “and i love that you got me tea” 

“I do know” 

And he also knows that Louis won’t shut up about how awful the tea is later, but he doesn't care, he’ll give him a discrete bunk bed hand-job to appease him when they go to bed. 

***

“So do you go here? I've never seen you around before” Louis says sipping his tea with a satisfied smile on his face.

“No, i was visiting a friend while i’m in town” It’s strange being on a date with Louis, where he can’t touch him whenever he wants.

“You don’t live here then?” and Louis looks almost disappointed

“I’m here with my band” Harry says instead “you should come and see us, we’re playing tomorrow actually” 

“No shit!” Louis says excitedly “i’m pretty sure my mate Hannah’s dragging me to the show tomorrow actually, she fancies one of you lot” Louis smirking now and Harry wants to cry, he’s so beautiful. 

“I could get you backstage if you wanted” he feels sixteen again, desperately trying to impress this boy, desperately wanting Louis to like him. 

“Yeah? Hannah would die” 

“Here” harry says taking out his phone and handing it to Louis “we can swap numbers, you could come a little earlier and hang out before the show starts?” he knows he sounds overeager but Louis’s nodding his head along enthusiastically and smiling up at Harry, so he’s not too concerned.

***  
Niall takes to Louis instantly, laughing at all his jokes and Harry can almost pretend that everything is normal. only it isn’t Hannah’s standing around with Louis shooting glances at Zayn, he doesn’t blame her, Zayn is beautiful. 

He can’t explain it but there’s this energy buzzing in the room and Harry’s almost certain it has to do with the fact that the five of them are all in the same room together.

“His name is Louis” Zayn says quietly from behind Harry, who just turns his head to nod, “You were telling the truth weren’t you” he says closer this time, looking over at Louis and Niall laughing like they’ve know each other for years. 

“I was” 

“What’s going Harry?” 

“I don’t know, i woke up and i wasn’t where i was supposed to be, everything was wrong and worst of all, Louis wasn’t there” he hasn’t taken his eyes off the boy in question, too afraid that he’ll disappear again. 

“He’s meant to be a part of the band then?” 

“Yes” 

***

The show goes off without a hitch and Louis and Hannah hang around for drinks afterwards.  
They’re leaving in the morning and then he won’t see Louis again for who knows how long, Niall thinks he should just tell him, try and convince him to come with them and work from there. Only Harry has no idea how he’ll be able to convince Louis of anything in one night. 

He’s freaking out at the bar when he’s meant to be ordering a second round of pints, when Niall joins him, “You said you knew after that first meeting in the toilets when you were sixteen” he starts, “that you didn’t need any other convincing, you just knew right away that he was the one” he turns to face Harry with a serious expression on his face “I think that whatever else has changed, that hasn’t yeah. He’ll know you’re telling the truth”

“But what if he doesn’t Niall, what if i tell him and he thinks I’m mental and he never want’s to see me again. What if i mess it up for good?”

Niall looks at him contemplatively and says “are you happy Harry Styles?” and its all vaguely familiar,

“What?”

“Are you happy?” he says again “because i don’t think you are mate and isn’t the smallest chance of happiness worth the risk?” 

That’s how Harry finds himself outside ten minutes later with Louis by his side. 

“Louis” he says, determined “we’re leaving tomorrow and I think you should come with us” he raises a hand to stop whatever Louis’s about to say and tells him everything. He end with “And i know it sounds crazy, and I wouldn’t blame you if you walked away right now and never looked back, but I know you can feel it, so please just trust me” 

“Harry, I hardly know you and you want me to drop everything, my entire life for this? I’ve known you for one night, this is insane” Harry’s head drops, he knew it was mental, he shouldn’t have said anything. 

“Look, I like you, I think you’re well fit and if you weren’t leaving tomorrow I’d be up for seeing more of you, but I can’t just drop everything for a boy” he looks genuinely upset and Harry hates this, he wishes this night could just go and get itself over with.

“Louis” he says and he knows that if he never says this he’ll regret it forever “I know you’re not my Louis, but I still want you to know that I was happy with my life, I really truly was” he takes a deep breath and slowly tilts Louis’s face up, slowly bending down to capture his lips in a kiss.  
Its gently and soft and it breaks Harry’s heart, but before he can pull away, Louis’s dragging his back down and deepening the kiss and his on fire with how much he wants this. “Louis” he breathes out roughly between kisses

“Come back” he says when he pulls back “come back here after your tour and we’ll talk about it some more then yeah” 

and its not a no. 

***

Harry’s going to convince Louis eventually, and One Direction will become what they were always meant to be only this time they’ll be able to hold hands in public and kiss whenever they want.  
***

“You’re doing it again,”

“Doing what?’

“Staring,” 

“How can I help myself when my boyfriend looks like you”

“We’re on stage Harold” Louis says rolling his eyes fondly and smacking a kiss to his cheek.

**Author's Note:**

> so that was the fic.  
> I really hope you like it!


End file.
